Respect for the individual, constant stressing of core cultural values of letting everyone be heard, etc. Decent work/life balance, though it's hugely dependent on the individual to enforce. Individuals are encouraged to engage with managers at any level (for example with your manager's manager's manager...). There's a general high-level of passion for the products we make.

Cons

Loose on process, heavy on PM's to compensate. Compensation is middle-of-the-pack. And we're still compensated on a curve, even if the compensation policy claims there's no ranking.

Advice to Management

Be careful with forced distribution of compensation. Given the concentration of talent, the person near the bottom is still an excellent contributor and you'd hate to lose that person.

1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop.

2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice.

3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Cons

Brand on Your Resume: After many years of losing market share and struggling to be at the front end of innovation and the fact that there's 90,000 employees, don't think MSFT is necessarily going to be attractive on your resume to more agile and smaller companies.

Managing Your Career: Make you say this out loud so it registers - 90,000 employees work there. Double that for vendors. It is VERY hard to "stand out" and move up in the company. Don't expect your manager to be much of an advocate or enabler to help you meet your career goals - they are basically trying to survive the stack rank every year too. Not familiar with the stack rank? Check out the 2012 Vanity Fair article called "Microsoft's Lost Decade".

Advice to Management

I'll type it here - but I don't they are listening...1. Help proven talent move laterally in the company for new opportunities.2. Kill/evolve the stack rank. Here's basically how it's viewed:. 30% of the company gets 1s and 2s - and they are happy. 50% get 3s and that basically feels like getting a "C" in school. This sucks for talented people when a multitude of UNCONTROLLABLE conditions keep you from getting into 1 or 2 range. The 20% getting anything below a 3 are walking dead. In summary, 70% of the company walk away from the review cycle feeling like crap. This is no good.

After 10 years, I'm leaving - it's just a matter of time until I find the right opportunity. I need to find a company spends 90% of it's time building technology experiences, as opposed to 90% of its time building PowerPoints. And I expect to refuse the exit interview - because if you really cared what I thought, you wouldn't ask me after I decided to leave.

With any company this size, it's going to depend on your department and management. I've been here 4 years, and we're given all of the tools and flexibility needed to do our jobs well. Pay and benefits are definition top of market. Cool perks/parties/etc. Great company to work for.

Cons

There is a lot of pressure, but that again will depend on management. Probably not best for people who want to coast into retirement.

The reality of this situation is when you are a contractor, you are not treated the same as FTEs. Contractors are considered "second class" and do not get the same treatment as FTEs. Irrespective of how successful you may be or your potential, the reality is Managers focus their time and grooming on FTEs.

Advice to Management

Have a succession plan for contractors up front. Had I known our entire contractor team was going to be dismissed less than 90 days after accepting a position, with the intention of going Full Time, I would not have taken the chance on Microsoft. This has set my job search back a full six months and I lost good opportunities because I accepted what was to end up a very temporary position as a contract CSM.

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